Modelling of Car Dynamic Frontal Crush

Denis P. Wood; Stephen Mooney

doi:10.4271/970943

1997-02-24

Modelling of Car Dynamic Frontal Crush 970943

This paper examines the dynamic displacement-crushing force and dynamic displacement-absorbed energy behaviour of eight cars in full width barrier, 45% overlap rigid barrier and 30° angled barrier tests at 56, 50 and 56 kph respectively. This study shows the frontal crush behaviour of these cars can be divided into three regions or zones of constant force, these zones being associated with crushing of the front structure as far as the engine, the engine and rear front structure and the occupant compartment. The highest average crushing force is associated with crushing of the engine and rear front structure with lower average crushing forces required for the extreme front of the car and for the occupant compartment.

It is hypothesised that the energy absorbed-dynamic displacement behaviour in the full width barrier test represents the energy absorbed-mean displacement for all other crush configurations. This hypothesis is combined with the geometric crushing model for the car front (Wood 1993, 1995) to calculate the responses in the 45% overlap and the 30° angled barrier tests for one of the cars. A high degree of correlation is obtained. Further evaluation is needed to verify the hypothesis.

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Modelling of Car Dynamic Frontal Crush 970943

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